


Blue

by fencesit



Category: Log Horizon
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Slice of Life, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 08:02:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19970701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencesit/pseuds/fencesit
Summary: Minori and Akatsuki talk about things they left behind.





	Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SylviaoftheDepths](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylviaoftheDepths/gifts).



Now that the game is real, weapon maintenance requires more than just grinding for resources and then clicking through a menu screen. It brings Akatsuki to the roof of the Log Horizon guild building near daily, so long as the weather is good, to take advantage of the fresh air and good light. The others spend just as much time up here, but today it's just Akatsuki and Minori. An unusual match up, but not a bad one. 

"Do you ever—" Minori starts, and then stops abruptly. She ducks her head to look back down at her book. 

"Do I ever what?" 

Quietly, so quietly it's almost hard to hear her over the crowd below, Minori finishes her question: "Think of the... real world? No one ever mentions... anything about it. They just talk about going back." 

More and more these days Akatsuki feels like everyone she left behind in the real world, the world they lived in before the Apocalypse, is dead and gone. Relegated to memory, and never spoken of — because if there _are_ people who talk about their lives outside of Elder Tale, they don't do it with Akatsuki. 

But then, that had also typically been the case before the game became real. 

It's important to take time for each other, her mother used to say. Still says, hopefully. Maybe if Akatsuki wants change, the change has to start with her. 

Akatsuki puts her shuriken aside. "I do. Every day. Do you?" 

Minori's head bobs in agreement. "I miss my mom. And my dad. And even my _teachers_." 

Her voice cracks, and Akatsuki has to shove down a sudden flood of panic. She can do this. Someone has to do this. She rises from her seat at the base of the tree and leaves her things behind. The closest actual seat is too far away, so Akatsuki half-sits, half-leans on the table next to Minori. 

"I miss my mother, too." Akatsuki pauses. What else is there to say? There has to be something more. "And my sister. My dog." 

"I—I didn't you had a sister _or_ a dog," Minori stutters. She's progressed to full on crying now. Nothing dramatic, just tears slipping down her cheeks faster than they can be wiped away. 

"It's hard to talk about." Akatsuki reaches out and rests a hand on Minori's shoulder and then, after a moment, decides to rub her back instead. "I don't mind listening, if you want to tell someone." 


End file.
